Kan du lägga dina nycklar i lådan?

Because Swedish usually changes the word order in a direct yes/no question. The finite verb comes first, and the subject comes second.

• Statement: Du kan lägga dina nycklar i lådan. = You can put your keys in the box/drawer.
• Question/request: Kan du lägga dina nycklar i lådan? = Can you put your keys in the box/drawer?

This is called inversion, and it is very common in Swedish questions.

It can be both, just like English Can you ...?

In this sentence, it is most naturally understood as a request: Can you put your keys in the box/drawer?

So even though kan literally means can / are able to, in everyday Swedish it is also a normal, polite way to ask someone to do something.

If you want to sound more polite or softer, you could say something like:

• Kan du lägga dina nycklar i lådan, snälla?
• Skulle du kunna lägga dina nycklar i lådan?

Because kan is a modal verb, and after modal verbs in Swedish, the next verb normally stays in the infinitive form.

So:

• kan lägga = can put
• not kan lägger

This is the same pattern you see with other modal verbs:

• Jag vill äta. = I want to eat.
• Du måste gå. = You must go.
• Hon ska läsa. = She will/is going to read.

No. After modal verbs such as kan, vill, måste, ska, and bör, Swedish normally uses the infinitive without att.

So:

• Kan du lägga ...? = correct
• Kan du att lägga ...? = incorrect

This is different from some other situations where Swedish does use att before an infinitive.

Lägga means to lay / put / place. It is a very natural verb when talking about putting an object somewhere, especially into or onto something.

With keys, lägga is completely normal.

Swedish also has other placement verbs, for example:

• ställa = put something standing upright
• sätta = set/place something in a sitting position
• lägga = lay/place something so it ends up lying down

In everyday speech, lägga is often the most natural choice for small objects like keys.

These possessive words agree with the noun, not with the person.

Since nycklar is plural, Swedish uses dina.

The pattern is:

• din
  • singular en-word
• ditt
  • singular ett-word
• dina
  • plural noun

Examples:

• din bok = your book
• ditt hus = your house
• dina nycklar = your keys

So here dina is used because nycklar is plural.

No, not here.

Sin / sitt / sina is a reflexive possessive, and it is mainly used when the owner is the third-person subject of the clause.

For example:

• Hon lade sina nycklar i lådan. = She put her own keys in the box/drawer.

But with du, you use din / ditt / dina, not sin / sitt / sina.

So:

• Kan du lägga dina nycklar i lådan? = correct
• Kan du lägga sina nycklar i lådan? = incorrect

The singular is nyckel.

Here are the main forms:

• en nyckel = a key
• nyckeln = the key
• nycklar = keys
• nycklarna = the keys

So dina nycklar means your keys.

Because lådan is the definite form: the box / the drawer.

Swedish usually adds definiteness as a suffix on the noun:

• en låda = a box / a drawer
• lådan = the box / the drawer

So i lådan means in the box/drawer, usually one that both speaker and listener already know about.

If you meant a non-specific one, you could say:

• i en låda = in a box

It can mean either, depending on context.

Låda is a general word for a container-like thing, so it may be translated as:

• box
• drawer
• sometimes bin or case, depending on the situation

So the exact English translation depends on what kind of låda the speaker means.

Because i means in / inside, while på usually means on / on top of.

If the keys are going inside the box or drawer, Swedish uses i:

• i lådan = in the box/drawer

If they were going on top of it, you would use på:

• på lådan = on the box

A simple English-friendly approximation is LOH-dan, with the stress on the first syllable.

A few useful pronunciation points:

• å is not like the English a in cat
• it sounds more like the vowel in law for many learners
• the a in the second syllable is shorter and lighter

So lådan is roughly LOH-dan.

A rough approximation is NIK-lar, but that is only approximate.

Two important things:

• The y in Swedish is not the English y sound.
• It is a rounded vowel: something a bit like saying ee while rounding your lips.

Also:

• ckl in nycklar may feel tricky at first, but in normal speech it flows together quite smoothly.

So nycklar is often approximated for learners as NIK-lar, though the real Swedish vowel is different from English.